litany by Mahogany L. Browne

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 25, 2016   litany   Mahogany L. Browne

I wish I knew how It would feel to be free I wish I could break All the chains holding me —Nina Simone   today i am a black woman in america & i am singing a melody ridden lullaby it sounds like:               the gentrification of a brooklyn stoop               the rent raised three times my wages               the bodega and laundromat burned down on the corner               the people on the corner                             each lock & key of their chromosomes                             a note of ash & inquiry on their tongues   today i am a black woman in a hopeless state i will apply for financial aid and food stamps            with the same mouth i spit poems from i will ask the angels of a creative god to lessen            the blows & i will beg for forgiveness when i curse            the rising sun   today, i am a black woman in a body of coal i am always burning and no one knows my name i am a nameless fury, i am a blues scratched from the throat of ms. nina—i am always angry i am always a bumble hive of hello i love like this too loudly, my neighbors think i am an unforgiving bitter              sometimes, i think my neighbors are right              most times i think my neighbors are nosey   today, i am a cold country, a storm brewing, a heat wave of a woman wearing red pumps to the funeral of my ex-lover’s   today, i am a woman, a brown and black & brew woman dreaming of freedom   today, i am a mother, & my country is burning              and i forgot how to flee from such a flamboyant backdraft                         —i’m too in awe of how beautiful i look             on fire            Copyright © 2016 Mahogany L. Browne. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “‘litany’ was written after the anniversary of ‘I Wish I Knew How It Felt to Be Free,’ made famous by Nina Simone. And I sat with what that meant, years later—when I am still wishing for a certain type of freedom. To think of the time passing but of senseless deaths of black and brown bodies remaining. The poem was a mulling of all that has changed and all that has not. Injustice has not changed. Poverty has not changed. The idea that I am writing from poem to check to mouth/house is no coincidence. And the building on my corner was most certainly burned to the ground, leaving folks homeless. Within two weeks there was talk of building condos. And my neighbors and I, free to watch, stood on the opposite corner of the destroyed building as contractors stomped in and out of the remains. Someone smiled loudly about the ‘new multimillion-dollar building plans.’ And it didn’t feel like freedom at all.” —Mahogany L. Browne   Mahogany L. Browne is the author of Redbone (Aquarius Press, 2015). She is a teaching artist at Urban Word NYC and lives in Brooklyn, New York.   Photo credit: Kia Dyson  Poetry by Browne   Redbone (Aquarius Press, 2015) "The neighbor’s buddy watching my screen through the window" by francine j. harris "Pomegranate Means Grenade" by Jamaal May "Mother Night" by James Weldon Johnson Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038